Sorry son, you're just not up to it

[bulldogs]

Simon Tregenza grew up in Glenelg's zone. I believe Port showed interest in him while he was still a junior, possibly even still at SHC, and Glenelg was all too happy to clear him. I dare say he was one of Port's better players in the '89 and '90 seasons, and good enough to make the initial Crows team.

Not quite in the same vein, but Wayne Stringer told Jim West he wasn't part of Glenelg's further plans, after a long and successful SANFL and AFL career... and promptly won a Ken Farmer medal and premiership at Norwood

Simon Tregenza was captain of the bays under15 1986 samboy cup team which lost to the mighty roosters. the next year he was at the maggies and lost an under 17 gf to the roosters

[Leaping Lindner]

Antrobus was rejected by Port as being "too small".
McGowan was rejected by North as we had no room in our midfield at the time

[heater31]

wasn't Brett Ebert told not to bother at the Eagles or did they just cut him because he was an Ebert and would always end up at Port?

[Magpiespower]

A little different but...

Somehow Port stole Greg Anderson from Torrens.

Similarly, there's Big Bob's ultimatum to a young Jack Cahill, who after winning the McCallum Medal was found to be living in Port's zone...

Play for Port or you won't play league footy!

[selion]

Not sure if that was right about Mods.
He was playing ressies at Westies in about '88 I reckon.
Use to have the big curly blond perm!!!
I know he didnt want to come back in about 90 or 91 & wanted to go to Mildura with his brother, but big Doug wouldnt let him go - good call by Doug

[Dogwatcher]

One cold wintery night at Elizabeth Oval in 1993 a coach pulled aside three young footballers and said "boys, we're looking to focus on the guys who will play under 19s for us next season and sadly, we don't think you three will be up to it. It's up to you but we'd suggest you go back to your clubs and see how you go there. You can train with us but you're no guarantee of getting selection".
The coach (who was involved with a prominent amateur league club this season) was correct about two of those players - the other went on to play in an AFL premiership with Sydney and is now their games record holder.
His name...Mick O'Loughlan.
I guess two out of three ain't bad.

[leftlegger]

Gilbert McAdam given that message by NAFC - the rest is history.
:

I played against Gilbert when he was playing U17s with North. He was the best player running around at U17 level by a mile. I doubt that they would have given him a DCM on perceived playing ability. More likely he drifted back up in NT before drifting back down again.

[leftlegger]

Another interesting one, is that Tony Modra actually went to a training session with Port one pre season, presumably it was 1990, he went with a mate of his who was playing with Port that year. When he introduced him to Cahill, Jack apparently said something like "sorry, we've already got enough forwards with D Smith, Hodges, Hynes", so that was the end of that, and Mods went off to West.

Played Juniors and Ressies with Mods at West also in 86/87. So not sure if thats 100% true.
Plus pre-seasons and Mods didnt mix too well back in those days.

Actually I remember him training with PHOS around the time you mention, so quite possible he did rock up to a Port training session. Its also quite possible he left half way through training without telling anyone.

[Hondo]

I think, in some cases, we are confusing DCM's with

- Teams recruiting players from outside their zone
- Players who drifted off voluntarially because they weren't ready, and then came back

For example the Trigger story (sorry Pseudo) - I heard somewhere that Glenelg were very unimpressed that Port had signed him as he was a stand-out junior

I doubt Trigger got a DCM from Glenelg and then just wondered off to Alberton for another crack.

Altho I can't say I am an expert on how junior recruiting works

[NO-MERCY]

Another interesting one, is that Tony Modra actually went to a training session with Port one pre season, presumably it was 1990, he went with a mate of his who was playing with Port that year. When he introduced him to Cahill, Jack apparently said something like "sorry, we've already got enough forwards with D Smith, Hodges, Hynes", so that was the end of that, and Mods went off to West.

Hogwash!

[crackers]

Donald Dickie played in Centrals zone and couldnt get a junior game then eventually went to try at Port and Cahill said No then went to Sturt and stuggled to get games under Bunton, ended up in country footy until Norwood come along and the back to Port under Jack in the AFL.

Paul Thomas loves Centrals but was told buy a certain person as a junior he would never play leauge, couldnt get a game first year of 17's then came back next year as capt and the finished 3rd in 19's B&F and then the rest is history , magery afl and premiership captain

[wycbloods]

Shaun Rehn was told he was no good by Port whilst at school and that is how he ended up at westies.

[Macca19]

Shaun Rehn was told he was no good by Port whilst at school and that is how he ended up at westies.

I thought he was traded for Craig Vozzo

[wycbloods]

Shaun Rehn was told he was no good by Port whilst at school and that is how he ended up at westies.

I thought he was traded for Craig Vozzo

Well that come from the horses mouth when he was coaching westies .

[nickname]

Not true, even if that's what the horse thinks. Port didn't know anything about Rehn. They hadn't heard of him because he was playing in the Independent Schools Comp and not in their zone. Vozzo wanted to go to Port, he looked good on paper having won the McCallum Medal, Port asked West a few questions about Rehn but didn't really do due diligence and the swap went through.

[westozfalcon]

This is not a SANFL example but I thought I'd throw it in anyway as it has to be the worst misjudgement by a club of all time.

Scott McIvor and Jason Dunstall came down from Queensland to train with Fitzroy in the early 1980's and one of the Lions coaching staff made one of the worst assesment's ever..

"The skinny kid (McIvor) can play but the fat one (Dunstall) is no good"

The rest as they say is history!

[robranosgod]

Jim Deane was coachng in Port Pirie in the mid 1960s. That was at the time that the Whyalla sides were in the Spencer Gulf league in addition to the Pirie and Augusta sides.

According to Jim he told South Adelaide there were three players worth looking at and to send up their best recruiter.

The recruiter reported back that none of the three would play league football : one was too small, one was too light and one was too slow.

Mick Nunan was very small, Graham Cornes was very light but Barrie Robran - too slow!!!!

None out of three is very bad.

[Adelaide Hawk]

In fairness to the Nunan assessment, it took a fair while before he made it at league level. Played in the seconds for 2-3 years for memory. There was another blonde lighly built rover named Peter Kretschmer. It was widely regarded that both had talent but were too light for league football.

[ORDoubleBlues]

Apparently Michael O'Loughlin was told by his U'19 coach at Central - as another poster mentioned here a while back - that he wouldn't play senior SANFL football.

well, he was right

[Dan The Man]

Andrew Obst was told he was not good enough by Port U-19's back in 1983.He went on to play about 4 seasons at West Croydon.
I think that he was the best player for the All-Australian team at the 1988 Bi-centennial carnival.
Port then brought him back to Port Adelaide where he played about 90 games and about 4 premierships.In between those 90 games,he played nearly 150 AFL games for Melbourne.